Rudder Pedal Project

[beaky]

Here's a (very!!)  rough sketch of what I'm working on... I'll post some pix later, once I've finished at least one of the sub-assemblies. So far I've only made some of the pedal hinge parts. I went through a lot of different design concepts, and narrowed it down to this conglomeration of some ideas I've seen, with a couple of things I thought of myself.  It's sort of elaborate, but I have most of the materials already lying around, and access to a fully-equipped shop right here in the loft. Besides, I don't do much carpentry any more, and this is a fun project...


Most of it will be made of wood; I got some (free!) scraps of very nice 5/4" oak which I'll use for the hinge parts. There will be teflon or nylon bushings and washers throughout.
 The base will be a shallow plywood box, with a rubber mat on the bottom. The pedals will be hardwood ply w/rubber mat on the contact surface.
 The electronics (gutted Saitek wireless joystick) will go somewhere in the back part; I'm going to extend the leads from the rudder pot and two of the buttons so I'll have rudder control and differential toe brakes. There will be a small block between the outside parts of the hinges, forward of the pedal, with a heavy-duty momentary switch for the brakes. As the pedal bracket pivots forward, it'll push the switch, with a rubber bumper next to it  to take some of the force (I'll set it up so when the bracket hits that stop, the switch will just be engaging). I haven't worked it out yet, but for each pedal there will be a torsion spring worked into the hinge to keep them upright yet allow them to tilt forward to activate the brakes.
The 3 steel crossbars will allow the two pedal assemblies to move back and forth; they'll be attached to the base only in the center. Of course, this means the pedals will move toward the center as they play back and forth, but not too much. I've seen this design on some  expensive retail units, so it must be workable.  The front point will just be a pivot, but the middle will have the rudder pot on it and the rear will have a bar or rod extending back a few inches, with a bungee connecting it to the back of the base to maintain tension and, I hope, return the pedals to center.
I'm definitely going to put a removable panel on top, as I foresee a lot of tweaking. The bottom of the base will probably be removable, too. Wish me luck, and if anyone has a suggestion, feel free.

[JBaymore]

rottydaddy,

Lookin' good... keep it coming.

best,

..............john

[TacitBlue]

Wow! I wish I had the space to do that kind of complicated stuff. The only tip I have for you is: when installing the pot its hard to find where the exact center is, so hook it all up, plug the unit in, and open the joystick calibration thingy in windows. click on raw data, turn the pot all the way, and divide the number it displays by half. Mine came to 512, when the pot is in the middle that is what it should read. leave it all hooked up when your making your final adjustments to the pot, and make sure its in good and tight.

Good luck!

[JBaymore]

rottydaddy,

You know... left and right brakes are assignable joystick axis functions in the sim.  For the rudder pedals... you could hook up pots to the toe braked and have proportional brakes like the real deal.

best,

...................john

[beaky]

Thanx for the tips, guys-
Tacit: I had a different plan for limiting the throw of that pot, but I like your idea. At some point I need to mess around with the modified stick before I install it in the base; I'll look into that.
JB: Yeah, I thought of that, but the stick I'm hacking only has one more pot (throttle), and I'm satisfied with the effect of   using a momentary switch  for brake function, anyway. I tend to mostly fly light aircraft, and I learned in RL not to ride the brakes, but use brief taps or full application, which non-variable triggering provides. But if I want, I can retrofit that... eventually I'll upgrade my X45, so I'll hack that and stick it in there. Might even make a throttle/electrics panel at that point, as well.
Well, I should probably shutup and get back to work on it; got some hardware yesterday, and it's time to drill out the hinge parts...

[Jared]

hmm, sounds like you've got yourself a pretty decent setup there.. ;-)

Still I'm glad I went ahead and bought mine.. ;-) saved myself the time and frustration...:-)

[beaky]

Y'know, I forgot about the X/Y pots iin that old stick... but what the heck, I'll stick with switches for the brakes for now.
Here's the first picture- forgive the quality; this is with a cheesy web cam, as I don't yet have a digital SLR or camcorder, and I've got no film for my 35mm right now.



This is part of one pedal subassembly, minus the footplate itself. It's resting on what I will most likely use as its "sled", on which it will move back and forth (5/4" heavy particle board w/hardboard facing both sides). In the foreground is one of the switch blocks- note the $2 doorbell switch. The rubber pad absorbs the force and stops the pedal just at the point where the switch is engaged. The doorbell switch is perfect, because it will work without any fussy alignment (it's sort of a variable-rocker spring switch). For the hinge pin, I used a 3/8" bolt inside a piece of  poly hose w/a 3/8" ID and 1/2" OD. Metal washers between the moving parts... works great so far. The small holes seen are from screwing the parts together for shaping and drilling- I'll probably fill them later.
I've given up on fitting a torsion spring in there; I'll put a pair of linear springs on either side of the triangle, in front of the pivot, to pull the pedal down to the position shown, and provide a little resistance when I rock the pedal to activate the brakes.
 Anyone considering making pedals this way needn't be discouraged if they don't have a shop. I'm going insanely over-the-top with this heavy oak, but you could easily get away with something lighter that you could cut with a cheap jigsaw. And the curves aren't necessary- I  have access to a nice old free-standing band saw, so I thought I'd go nuts.
 Found some really nice steel bar-stock lying around that I'll use to link the sleds together, but I didn't get around to cutting it today. By the end of the week, I'll probably have both pedal assemblies and the base completed, and with any luck the job will be completed by next Sunday night. Sometime during the week I have to do the soldering and bench-test the extended pot and switches... keep your fingers crossed.

[Mobius]

Awsome, thanks for posting shots, gave me some really good ideas.

[beaky]

A lttle behind schedule, but I cut some of that 3/8" bar stock last night, and  finished drilling out the other pedal parts. Here's a photo of the two sleds mocked up on the bars... one footplate left off. Still have to drill some holes in the steel so the sleds can be bolted on and the whole thing bolted to the base. Think I'll try out one of my latest finds: an enormous old Milwaukee low-speed drill mounted on an even older B&D drill press stand. Got it out of a dumpster (along with tons of other old tools) at a house that was being cleared out for renovation. Should be perfect for drilling 1/2" holes thru 3/8" stock...

Still not sure if I'm gonna use that particleboard for the sled bases and footplates- might go with solid wood, at least for the footplates. Not enough of that oak to do that, and it's too thick anyway. Gotta rummage around in the shop; I think roomie Andrew might have some scraps of mahogany back there...
  Got a chance to get some OT this weekend, so I doubt I'll be finishing up then. Whatever, no rush...